Richmond District Democratic Club

The San Francisco Democratic Party’s “Onward To Victory” Fall Gala, which took place on November 2 at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel, was a well-run, upbeat affair, with a full crowd and warm speeches honoring trailblazers and legends of San Francisco’s Democratic Party tradition. RDDC members in attendance were proud to cheer fellow member Jane Morrison who was awarded the Sue Bierman Memorial Award for her enormous contributions to the Democratic cause here and throughout the country. Jane, in her typically inclusive manner, mentioned RDDC member Shirley Hansen and RDDC president Richard Hansen as among those whose tireless efforts deserved to share in the honor. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was busy in Washington, provided a superb speech by video to end the evening on an uplifting and optimistic note. Onward!

Speaker Pelosi thanks San Francisco Democrats.

Jane Morrison accepts the Sue Bierman Memorial Award.

RDDC Board Member and former president, Hene Kelly.

RDDC board members, seated (from left): Shirley Hansen, Kimberly Knox, and Sascha Ielmorini.  Standing: RDDC  President Richard Hansen.

RDDC ENDORSEMENT MEETING SEPTEMBER 27, 2007

Thanks to Susan Hall’s great organizing skills, the Club had still another well-organized and highly-informative set of presentations by many of the candidates as well as proponents (both For and Against) the 11 Ballot measures that San Franciscans will vote on during the Nov. 6, 2007 Municipal Elections. Our Endorsement meeting was well attended, actually with standing room only for much of the time.

Both candidates for Sheriff (Michael Hennesy and David Wong) made excellent presentations as well as four of the candidates for Mayor (Wilma Pang, Lonnie Holmes, Quintin Mecke and Chicken John Rinaldi) who conveyed a wide range of unique insights into the values shared in our City. The incumbent Mayor Newsom was represented by his Campaign Manager and RDDC Club member Tom Hsieh.

After almost all of the initial presentations there were insightful questions and comments from our members and guests. Probably, in one way or another (such as casting of votes), all attendees left the RDDC meeting with the warm sense that at least to some extent they’d had a chance to “Get their 2 cents worth in,” although perhaps the outcomes of all voting were not exactly the way each individual had hoped. The final tallies are shown in the accompanying table for Candidates and the eleven Ballot Measures. Herewith is our club’s Slate Card for the Nov. 6, 2007 Municipal Election. We will not be mailing out a slate card for this particular election

Perhaps the most interesting result is that two mayoral candidates ( Gavin Newsom and challenger Quintin Mecke) ended in a dead heat, despite our having used the Ranked Choice voting method (in order to assure that any members who needed to get home at an early hour had full opportunity to show preference amongst the candidates).

Also of note at the meeting was that in several instances where Pro/Con presenters were no-shows, several of our own members ( including Jean Fraser, Ian King, Sacha Ielmorini, etc) were able to stand up and share with us their own expertise on some of the complex issues. You have all done the Club Proud; it’s great to be associated with so many smart and articulate Democrats!